Marathon Men in Australia

It was a match where two warriors who are a little past their prime tried to turn back the clocks and erase some demons of the past.

David Nalbandian beat Lleyton Hewitt 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 9-7 in the early hours of Wednesday, adding to the former No. 1-ranked Australian star’s long drought at Melbourne Park.

Hewitt led the head-to-head series with the Argentine Nalbandian 3-2, including a victory in the 2002 Wimbledon final and a quarterfinal here in 2005 in which the pair bumped into each other on a changeover. Video of that altercation was engraved in the minds of many, although I thought a big deal was made of nothing. 

The two traded blistering groundstokes for most of the match, yes many errors were made, but this was high drama tennis.  Nalbandian ultimately saved two match points before finishing the 4-hour, 48-minute match with a perfect lob on his first match point.

Hope you had your DVR set to record this one, you'll want to watch it leading up to the matches tonight.